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1979-592|1979-592/1

John Martin introduced this writing machine for blind people. Each letter is selected by touch and moved into line with the pointer. Once selected the plunger was pushed to make a letter-shaped hole in the paper fed by the rollers at the back. After the person finished typing, the paper was turned over and read by touch from the shapes of the holes in the paper. Machines like this one probably fell out of use with introduction of Braille in the 1820s in France. Britain and the United States did not formerly use Braille until the 1920s.